THE WALKING DEAD “Wildfire” Review

THE WALKING DEAD “Wildfire” Review

Five
episodes down, only one more left of AMC’s romp into a zombie apocalypse. In
some ways it was the best episode, filled with tragedy and changes. The Walking
Dead still suffers from a mood so sombre it can be dreary and mostly flat
characters who are more often than not dictated by the script. I have watched all
five episodes, and I still couldn’t list the characters’ names. Obviously for
readers of the graphic novels this is no big deal, but I am not a reader. I
still don’t know who all of the characters in the group are, what the dynamics
of the group are, and that’s a problem.

With this
episode, there were no bad moments, per se, but bewildering ones. The family
(whose name I cannot remember) leaving the group. I believe the acronym for
that is WTF. What father (I should say “and mother” but this show is still
irritatingly sexist in its depiction of a patriarchal group) would ever leave a
group of armed allies in order to head to Birmingham. Firstly, how do they know
they’ve got family left? Secondly, they’re dragging along two preteens.
Thirdly, they’re given a pistol and a half empty box of bullets (Rick was just
beig optimistic when he said it was half full) to protect themselves. Clearly
the story had no use the family (by the way, where did the kids come from?) but
the way in which they left was distractingly clumsy.